Basic Forum Rules Links & Signatures

jeffrey · #1 (**permalink**) 09-16-2004, 07:10 AM

Here are the basic rules of our forums beyond the (what I hope is obvious) fact that we are a family friendly site and you should behave appropriately in the forums. Please abide by them and email us at info@savingadvice.com first if you have any questions regarding posting:

First and foremost, coming to the site simply to promote your site is a not acceptable. While I really don't like doing this, SPAM has become a big enough problem that it's now necessary. You aren't allowed to have a link in your signature or post any outside links to other sites until you have made FIFTEEN (15) posts and be a member of the forums for at least one week. This helps ensure that you're here in the forums to give quality information to everyone and not merely to promote your site.

Once you have made the required 15 posts, please follow these rules if placing a link in your signature and in posts:

Affiliate Links: Affiliate links are not allowed in these forums. If you have a site that you want to recommend to our community, it should be good enough to recommend without an affiliate link.

Signatures: Banners and affiliated links are not allowed in your signature. You are allowed a single link in your signature and they should be to your personal site, not third party websites. A link to eBay or another auction site where you sell your goods is fine. If you have any doubts, ask first.

Links should not be colored or bolded. There is no reason to highlight your links. If you make good posts then people will visit.

Links in your signature must be appropriate. Links to adult content, gambling sites, pyramid schemes, illegal content or any other content that goes against the principles of this site will be removed. The Admins have the final and ultimate discretion as to whether your signature link is appropriate.

Links to competing sites that the admins deem similar to this site must provide a link back to our site on their homepage or the link in the signature will not be allowed.

Your signature should not exceed 4 lines single spaced - this is so that signatures aren't more prominent than the posts themselves.

Linking to your site in posts: Let your posts do your talking and convince people to visit your site. We allow you to link in your signature so we do not allow you to link to your site in the the body of the posts. If there is relevant information that you want to express that happens to be on your site, simply copy that information into your post here.

Freebies & Coupons Sections: Due to a huge increase in freebie and coupon spam, we have made it so that no member can post a new thread in the freebies section until you have made 15 posts. Any freebies or coupons posted outside the freebie and coupons section should will automatically be considered spam and deleted.

PrincessPerky · #2 (**permalink**) 11-27-2004, 08:31 AM

What is an affiliate link?

jeffrey · #3 (**permalink**) 11-27-2004, 05:49 PM

An affiliated link is a link that goes to a site where you get paid money if people use it. For example, we get a lot of people coming in and saying that such and such a website is fantastic and everyone should try it. Then they place a link that if someone goes to the site and signs up, they get paid a few dollars. We do not allow this in our forums.

PrincessPerky · #4 (**permalink**) 11-28-2004, 07:11 AM

Thanks. Arn't you offering to be an affiliated link? Double standard?

jeffrey · #5 (**permalink**) 11-28-2004, 07:51 AM

We aren't an affiliated link because everything we offer on our site is free. Affiliated links get paid when you purchase a product or service. There is nothing to purchase on our site since everything is free.

PrincessPerky · #6 (**permalink**) 11-28-2004, 09:23 AM

Makes sense, thanks and sorry.

Uncljim · #7 (**permalink**) 12-16-2004, 01:59 AM

Hi again Jeffrey, I did go through the rules and am not so sure if I broke the rules. I wil be pleased if you could enlighten me if need so, I'd be happy to make ammends.

jeffrey · #8 (**permalink**) 12-16-2004, 02:47 AM

A link to your own site as it currently reads is fine.

We don't mind letting people know where you are from and your presence on the Internet, but your signature should not be louder than your posts. We were getting people placing 5 or more links in their signatures with all kinds of colors and it was distracting to the flow of threads. Keep it simple. If you want to make it stand out, do that by making quality posts in the threads so that people want to see more of what you have to say.

Uncljim · #9 (**permalink**) 12-16-2004, 03:19 AM

Thank you Jeffrey, Will observe that and yes simplicity is a nice suggestions.

BlingBling · #10 (**permalink**) 03-30-2005, 12:22 PM

I am sorry I should have read the rules first, I've been here so often, I just created my profile and went for it. Again, I am sorry.

jeffrey · #11 (**permalink**) 03-30-2005, 12:28 PM

Not a problem at all

It's obvious when people are doing it on purpose and when they aren't and I knew from your posts you simply missed this thread and weren't posting with the sole purpose of promoting (believe me, we get enough of those every day to know what is what). I just took it down because if I didn't, we start getting flooded. We're certainly happy to have you here and look forward to seeing you more in the forums.

BlingBling · #12 (**permalink**) 03-30-2005, 01:56 PM

Thanks for understanding, I don't blame ya a bit and glad you took it down as it got my attention and made me consider the rules.

I did'nt even think to do an intro, when I decided to get my password and stuff, I went right into posting. lol....Happy to be here.

dvdmaxwell · #13 (**permalink**) 05-13-2005, 09:32 PM

You should post your rules in everyone's control panel and a link to your rules on the menu bar at the top of every page (that's pretty easy to do). I registered and went off to your other forum categories and did not think to look in here (we are not perfect in this rushed world of ours). As a consequence, I unknowingly broke the rules (I probably had a referral link in my signature--I say "probably" because I did too much today and can't remember) and although I was only a member for about an hour, you have disallowed my dmaxwell id (username) from entering the forum. We would all save time if the webmasters would post their rules in the most obvious places rather than varying the locations to suit themselves. I for one can make any canned program (code) more user friendly; I can easily modify code, rather than relying on professional developers' poor designs.

jeffrey · #14 (**permalink**) 05-13-2005, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvdmaxwell

You should post your rules in everyone's control panel and a link to your rules on the menu bar at the top of every page (that's pretty easy to do). I registered and went off to your other forum categories and did not think to look in here (we are not perfect in this rushed world of ours). As a consequence, I unknowingly broke the rules (I probably had a referral link in my signature--I say "probably" because I did too much today and can't remember) and although I was only a member for about an hour, you have disallowed my dmaxwell id (username) from entering the forum. We would all save time if the webmasters would post their rules in the most obvious places rather than varying the locations to suit themselves. I for one can make any canned program (code) more user friendly; I can easily modify code, rather than relying on professional developers' poor designs.

Yes, your right - will have Nate take a look at that since It's a complete waste of my time having to delete all the SPAM.

As for your user name being banned, you had to have made an obvious SPAM post along with referral links to be banned. I know that some people don't see the rules right away and if you had a link in your signature and had made an appropriate post for these forums, I would have simply deleted your signature until you reached the minimum requirements (which I have done many a time). I'm very flexible in that way - Obviously, this was not the case with your post and thus your user name was banned.

Bruce Wayne · #15 (**permalink**) 07-22-2005, 06:09 AM

Hi Jeffrey, I fully understand and support your decision to limit signature links to those members that have been around a while. I've passed the 15 post mark but have obviously not been around for a week yet. I have it set to include my signature on all posts in my profile, will a signature link be added to all my posts once I've been here one week? ie will they be backdated so to speak?

Thanks.

jeffrey · #16 (**permalink**) 07-22-2005, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruce Wayne

Hi Jeffrey, I fully understand and support your decision to limit signature links to those members that have been around a while. I've passed the 15 post mark but have obviously not been around for a week yet. I have it set to include my signature on all posts in my profile, will a signature link be added to all my posts once I've been here one week? ie will they be backdated so to speak?

Thanks.

I appreciate your understanding and the rules simply help to keep the forums clean and easy for people to read and find the information they want. Your signature will not backdate...again, this is to help keep people from spamming. if you have any further questions, feel free to ask away.

FrugalTexan75 · #17 (**permalink**) 10-30-2005, 06:24 PM

Jeffery,

I added a link to my ebay page in my signature, but it shows the address. I tried to do the xhtml code where it just makes clickable text, but I guess html is turned off??

This is what I put in: <a href="http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfrppZ25QQfsooZ2QQfsopZ19QQsassZlaneerg"> My $20 into $5000 challenge</a>
Please let me know what I'm doing wrong. Thanks.

Keeping It Frugal in Texas,
Laura

Edited: That's weird. It worked just fine in the body of the message, but not in my signature?????

jeffrey · #18 (**permalink**) 10-30-2005, 06:42 PM

Done...yes, the signature only uses forum code and won't accept html. I fixed it - you can take a look and see how the forum code works.

FrugalTexan75 · #19 (**permalink**) 10-31-2005, 06:39 AM

Thanks Jeffery, your'e the bomb.

Keeping It Frugal in Texas,
Laura

lisajane · #20 (**permalink**) 11-08-2005, 01:23 AM

You referred me to this post, and I was wondering why my sig kept getting removed. But I would like to mention, I lost my old account, and I wasn't able to remove it, or reset it for some reason. So I have over 1 week and over 15 posts from before.

My old username was compugirl. Maybe that would help?